Logan Valley Mall

Logan Valley Mall
The main entrance of the Logan Valley Mall
Map
LocationAltoona, Pennsylvania, United States
Coordinates40°28′04″N 78°24′41″W / 40.46767°N 78.41145°W / 40.46767; -78.41145
Address5580 Goods Lane
Opening date1965
DeveloperCrown Construction
OwnerNamdar Realty Group
ArchitectHunter, Campbell & Rea (now Hayes Large)
No. of stores and services50+[1]
No. of anchor tenants3 (2 open, 1 vacant)
Total retail floor area778,385 square feet (72,000 m2)[2]
No. of floors1-2 (1 in former Sears)
ParkingGarages and Lots
Public transit accessBus transport AMTRAN bus: 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12
Bus transport ATA bus: Clearfield to Altoona Shopping
Bus transport CamTran+ bus: 36
Websiteshoploganvalleymall.com

The Logan Valley Mall is a regional shopping mall that is located in Altoona, Pennsylvania, United States. It is currently anchored by JCPenney and Macy's and features more than 50 stores and services on two levels.

History

20th century

The Logan Valley Mall opened in November 1965 as an open-air shopping center with Sears,[3] Weis Markets and a few small shops.[4] JCPenney was built in 1966,[5] and the mall was enclosed for a grand opening on June 8, 1967.[6] In May 1976, a four-screen movie theater opened in the mall.[7] In 1979, another expansion was completed by Crown American with the construction of Hess's department store.[8] By the mid-1990's, the mall had offered more than one hundred stores and services.

The Amtran Bus station and Mall Main Entrance

During the early morning hours of December 16, 1994, a fire of unknown origin broke out in the G.C. Murphy store and quickly spread through most of the original section of the mall, which did not have fire sprinklers. Fifteen stores and nine kiosks were destroyed and dozens more were damaged.[9]

A three-phase plan was immediately laid out to reconstruct the mall. The first phase, beginning in 1995, started with a new store, Kaufmann's, which was added to the far end of the mall to replace the then-vacant Hess's. The already-built, undamaged, two-story portion of the mall was renovated to include changeovers, such as the re-branding of Wall To Wall Sound & Video to The Wall and temporary relocation of restaurants such as Wong's Wok. Another phase one project was the construction of a new, two-story section to replace the portion damaged by the fire. This was completed in May 1996.[10] Phase two consisted of opening a new three-story parking garage and a new eight-screen Carmike Cinema. Phase three was completed in 1997 and included the opening of a new larger JCPenney store closer to Sears and a new food court on the renovated second floor of the old Penney's store.

21st century

PREIT acquired the mall in 2003 as part of its acquisition of the malls owned by Crown American. The May Department Stores Company, which owned Kaufmann's, was sold to Federated Department Stores in 2005. Federated proceeded to convert various May properties to Macy's, including the Logan Valley Mall store. In 2017, the Carmike Cinema was re-branded AMC Classic following AMC's acquisition of the Carmike chain. Also in 2017, the mall was sold to Mason Asset Management and Namdar Realty Group.[11]

On December 28, 2018, it was announced that the mall's Sears store would be closing as part of a plan to close eighty stores nationwide.[12] The store closed on March 3, 2019.

On July 7, 2021, it was announced that the AMC CLASSIC Logan Valley 8 had closed permanently, which was attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Logan Valley Mall ::: Directory". Retrieved March 10, 2021.
  2. ^ "Logan Valley Mall Fact Sheet" (PDF). PREIT. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 15, 2012. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
  3. ^ "Photo: As New Sears Roebuck Store Opened". Altoona Mirror. November 3, 1965. p. 27.
  4. ^ "Photo: Record Number of Groundbreakers at Sears". Altoona Mirror. April 29, 1965. p. 40.
  5. ^ "Penney's Joins Mall". Altoona Mirror. January 7, 1966. p. 10.
  6. ^ "Grand Opening". Altoona Mirror. June 7, 1967. p. 25.
  7. ^ "Cinemas IV". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  8. ^ "AD". Altoona Mirror. September 12, 1979. p. 24.
  9. ^ "Logan Valley Mall Fire Altoona, Pennsylvania" (PDF). Federal Emergency Management Agency and United States Fire Administration. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  10. ^ "Logan Valley Mall Fire". HMdb. HMdb. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  11. ^ "New York companies buy Logan Valley Mall". Altoona Mirror. September 9, 2017.
  12. ^ Thomas, Lauren (2018-12-28). "Sears is closing 80 more stores in March, faces possible liquidation". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
  13. ^ "AMC Theatres permanently closes Altoona location". 7 July 2021.